Long time, no meme, so it’s time to hop on the bandwagon again. And by hop I mean a whale sized leap, the long-circulating 30 days of music. I plan to do a song a day for this, instead of laying out the whole in a single post.

The attached drum-for-fun gentlemen from Harlem have absolutely nothing to do with the meme.

I’m pretty sure the list is more or less accurate, but I’m leaving spot #15 unfilled just in case there happens to be a pub that I’ve gracelessly forgotten:

Kuparipannu (first beer ever, long gone from Korkeavuorenkatu and replaced by multiple pubs and restaurants since – currently Gastone resides in the location).

Tavastia (my first ever genuine bar gig was in the biggest Scandinavia’s biggest rock’n'roll club, and I’ve been back plenty of times since).

Rendez-Vous (the not-so-hot-pub in Forum was the first place I ever got tossed out of ).

William K @ Annankatu (the first proper beer bar I got introduced to – the widening horizons beyond eurolager have deep roots here).

The Pie (the closest beer-serving location to the campus at the U was a frequent haunt during the exchange year of 1993-94).

Talentti (inception of SIG, a group of like-minded co-workers, conveniently next door to the office on Valimotie).

Macondo (SIG 2.0, after the move to Hiomotie facility, far grungier, but had reasonable opening hours).

Base (SIG downtown these days [albeit rarely] and a fine rock’n'roll bar, with a respectably metallic soundtrack).

Sling In (forcibly introducing the concept of tall and borderline sweet drinks).

American Bar (the finest in Helsinki).

Kaisla (still my #1 choice of a beer bar in Helsinki).

King City / Mr. Lau (neighbourhood joint for a decade).

Plevna (the second most common extra-curricular location in Tampere, after Swamp Music).

Boston Beerworks (always something truly interesting on tap).

Purposefully left out a couple of good candidates.

The bars in Ruoholahti are not that common haunts yet (though both Amsterdam and One Pint are pleasant indeed), there’s no bar worth a mention in Espoo (might change on the first visit to Gallows Bird).

But for those with a 2.3 second attention span, here’s the whole first entry from 29.3.2004:

And so it begins.

Indeed. Yet another blog among the uncounted thousands in the web already. This is just a trial run for an unspecified amount of time whether I keep having semi-interesting things to say.

No idea what this’ll cover. Things I’m interested in. Or pissed off at. Both, at the same time, sometimes. If people are covered, this will be under cover of some anonymity to protect the innocent, and in best possible taste, of course.

I haven’t been actually challenged, but that’s not a reason NOT to participate in a meme.

The instructions are simple:

Enter the fourth directory in your picture stash.

Choose the fourth picture in your blog

Describe when/why/how you took it.

Challenge four people to participate

Well, this picture is from New York, close to the WTC ground zero, taken in January 2002, after the cleaning crew was mostly done with the rubble. This was a cold day, easily fifteen below zero, the chill compounded by stiff winds off the rivers.

The camera was a brand new Canon G3, and this image is the nineteenth picture taken with it.

It’s a list of a hundred dishes that an omnivore should have tried at least once.

The instructions are simple:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

Venison

Nettle tea

Huevos rancheros

Steak tartare

Crocodile

Black pudding (I think I’ve had the equivalent finnish dish)

Cheese fondue

Carp

Borscht

Baba ghanoush

Calamari

Pho

PB&J sandwich (for some reason I just can’t stand peanut butter in any form)

Aloo gobi

Hot dog from a street cart

Epoisses

Black truffle (I think I’ve only had white.)

Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

Steamed pork buns

Pistachio ice cream

Heirloom tomatoes (as far s I know.)

Fresh wild berries

Foie gras

Rice and beans

Brawn, or head cheese

Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

Dulce de leche

Oysters

Baklava

Bagna cauda

Wasabi peas

Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

Salted lassi

Sauerkraut

Root beer float

Cognac with a fat cigar

Clotted cream tea

Vodka jelly/Jell-O

Gumbo

Oxtail (in a soup only.)

Curried goat

Whole insects

Phaal

Goat’s milk

Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

Fugu

Chicken tikka masala

Eel

Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (I think I’ve had these.)

Sea urchin

Prickly pear

Umeboshi (I think I had this once as a dessert to sushi.)

Abalone

Paneer

McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

Spaetzle

Dirty gin martini

Beer above 8% ABV

Poutine

Carob chips

S’mores

Sweetbreads

Kaolin

Currywurst

Durian

Frogs’ legs

Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

Haggis

Fried plantain

Chitterlings, or andouillette

Gazpacho

Caviar and blini

Louche absinthe

Gjetost, or brunost

Roadkill

Baijiu

Hostess Fruit Pie (maybe I have, maybe I haven’t, can’t recall.)

Snail

Lapsang souchong

Bellini (a grave omission.)

Tom yum

Eggs Benedict

Pocky

Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

Kobe beef

Hare

Goulash

Flowers

Horse (in sausages, inevitably.)

Criollo chocolate

Spam

Soft shell crab

Rose harissa

Catfish

Mole poblano

Bagel and lox

Lobster Thermidor

Polenta

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Snake

My score is 61/100 eaten things, with three crossed out (fugu is something I would consider eating, given a truly good chef).

And had to look up quite a few things from wikipedia. And yes, “kaolin” is clay, supposedly nutritious clay.

The Internets chews the memes of the last decade, and has been analyzed in Flickr, just like the selection of droids. I’ve missed lots and lots of these, but at least a few of the less than obvious (like the Ceiling Cat) were instantly familiar.

A shirt on aliens has apparently not been analyzed yet, even though several instances of it are featured on Flickr.

I chose LibraryThing as my book management solution a while back, but haven’t really been that active in entering data.

And to delay the inevitable “let’s go shelf by shelf”-effort, I spotted a nifty related meme the other day. The newest Tuesday Thingers post challenges readers to see which of the top 100 books they own and/or have read, “top 100″ referring to the most owned books on the service.

The amount of Potters in the top ten is downright scary, but the list does get better once they’ve been passed.

The instructions are simple: bold what you own, italicize what you have read, and use * to note which books you’ve liked most.

I seem to have read pitifully few of the 1001 recommended books. Following Jason Kottke’s lead, the ones heavily recommended are affixed with an asterisk, and some books I aim to read within the year are noted in italics (and yeah, I should read more, and definitely read more classics).

1800s
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
King Solomon’s Mines – H. Rider Haggard
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain*
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll
Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll*Walden – Henry David Thoreau
The Count of Monte-Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe
Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper

Back in 2005, I took Jakob Nielsen’s test on blogging sins. And came off with four and a half. Some of which were rectified in the intervening years, but now, with the new engine, it’s time to revisit the list, which appears not to have been updated since.

1. No Author Biographies

No real biography, CV does mitigate this sin a little. Half a sin.

2. No Author Photo

Yes there is, on the top page of the site. No sin here.

3. Nondescript Posting Titles

I still believe in the non-sequitur school of entry naming. Hence, no sin.

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go

True, they don’t. But then again, how many people actually stop to see the link title appear before boldly clicking the underlined text. Quarter of a sin (with a hint of mistrial in the air).

5. Classic Hits are Buried

They are. And this is especially bad considering the shape the old archives are in.
But I will launch a “Best of…” widget in the sidebar soonest, thus nipping this sin in the bud.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation

It no longer is, categories are used to the full effect.
I’m still on the fence about using supplementary tags as well.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency

I don’t consider this to be a sin. Apart from the “game of the week”-category being truly misnamed. Irregularity is good, and the use of the RSS-feed pretty much keeps readers informed when there’s new stuff available. No sin, no sir, indeed.

8. Mixing Topics

As with previous, I don’t consider this to be a sin.
“Rampantly and wilfully mixing topics since 2004″ is actually a pretty decent tagline.

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss

Nah, I don’t blather too much about work or my private life to register.
And anyway, anybody who seriously objects to something written here wouldn’t be much of a long-term prospect as a superior officer anyway.

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

Nope. It’s mine, all mine. My precious.

There, that was easy: .75 sins, with one new entry-listing to launch. Got off much easier than three years ago.

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
Science Fiction. But I’m not averse to good fantasy or horror either.

Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Mass market paperbacks for the most part, occasionally trade paperbacks or hardbacks (usually when a couple of favorite authors release a new book).

Heinlein or Asimov?
Neither. I cut my teeth on Clarke.

Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Both. Amazon for planned purchases, b&m (especially Akateeminen) for the less planned ones.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Both. But only when travelling, neither chain is available locally.

Hitchhiker or Discworld?
Original hitchhiker as a single book (the rest increasingly sucked), Discworld as a series.

Bookmark or Dogear?
Bookmark. Definitely. Dogearing is equal to defacement in my book.

Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Collections, usually.

Hugo or Nebula?
Haven’t really figured the difference inbetween.

Golden Age SF or New Wave SF?
Neither is perfect, but new wave tends to be more entertaining.

Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Tidy ending usually, unless the cliffhanger is really good. And most of them are not.

Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
Apart from truly free weekends, nighttime is the only readily available timeslot.

Standalone or Series?
Standalone. Usually rampant serialization is a fantasy-specific crime.

Urban fantasy or high fantasy?
Depends. No single winner in this category. If urban is equal to modern, then it’s not really attractive. If not, then it probably has and edge.

New or used?
New. I like my books pristine.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Haven’t picked up anything spectacular lately.

Top X favorite genre books read last year? (Where X is 5 or less)
This list is in no particular order.
Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.
Forty Days of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Top X favorite genre books of all time? (Where X is 5 or less)
This list is in no particular order either.
Startide Rising by David Brin.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.
The fifth one shall remain unremembered.

X favorite genre series? (Where X is 5 or less)
Again, no order is implied inbetween the entries.
Uplift by David Brin.
Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin.
Discworld by Terry Pratchett.
Valerian by Jean-Claude Mézières & Pierre Christin.

Top X favorite genre short stories? (Where X is 5 or less)
I’ll give this one a miss, not having devoted much time to short stories lately.